c. 1996 Religion News Service

GILLIAM, La. _ Terral Whetstone doesn’t remember exactly when the idea formed, this plan to burn the black congregation’s church.

But the more he thought about it, the more this white man liked it. “The Lord just kind of led us into it,” Whetstone said. “We took up the challenge.”

The wood-frame church up in Gilliam was rural, so far up hilly U.S. 71 in north Louisiana that it was almost to Arkansas. It stood off the highway and down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

Some of Whetstone’s co-workers burned a building once just inside the Texas line, and though it was not a church, they were happy with the result. So he reckoned it was worth a try.

Whetstone ran it up the flagpole and everyone liked the idea. So it was decided: Torch the New Era Baptist Church. Burn it to the ground.

X X X

It takes only a dozen singers to fill the choir loft at New Era Baptist Church, and today it is full as the church honors the Rev. Jessie Jones for his two years on the job here. They’ve already held their morning worship service, and now they are back for the Pastor Appreciation Service, which began at 2 p.m.

Jones and his wife, Sue, sit in chairs placed between the pulpit and the pews and smile non-stop.

Jones’ attire is mostly white top to toe. White coat. White pants. White vest. White tie. Red shirt. Red carnation on his lapel.

His wife is similarly resplendent in white. This is their day.

The church building, however, has seen a better day. The floor slants downhill from the center aisle. Many of the pew-bottoms are split from one end to the other; they sag and threaten to pinch a posterior.

The windows are open, and the heat and humidity of a summer afternoon rush in on the force of three box fans sitting on the sills.

This is a poor church. They created their stained-glass windows with blue spray paint. The brown carpet, where any is left, is scuffed and nappy. In other places, the vinyl floor curls up.

Last summer, at Vacation Bible School, a little girl fell through a hole in the floor. A sheet of unpainted plywood covers the hole now.

X X X

The members of First Baptist aren’t strangers to the members 15 miles up the road at New Era.

The friendships began between Phyllis Hill, wife of the pastor at First Baptist, and deacon George Walker of New Era.

Hill teaches school at Herndon Magnet in Gilliam. She and Liz Reed, who both believe God called them to teach adults to read, became certified as reading tutors.

“We felt like it would be a ministry,” Hill said.

Two weeks later, George Walker’s wife, Linda, called to make an appointment. George Walker could read, but his comprehension was poor. He wanted to understand his Bible better.

Deacon Walker learned quickly. As they became friends, he frequently told Hill he’d been praying for God to send help to his church.

Meanwhile, Liz Reed was tutoring another man who, often as not, skipped his lesson. One Tuesday afternoon, just as Reed had given up on him and was preparing to leave, in walked the Rev. Jessie Jones, Walker’s pastor over at New Era, saying he needed help with his reading.

Jones had only a ninth-grade education. Reed and Jones set to work, and the book they discussed the most was the Bible.

Back at First Baptist, the Rev. James Hill had been leading a study titled “Experiencing God,” about loving and obeying God. And the church’s mission committee had been praying for a good outreach project near home.

Phyllis Hill, who was in the study group, relayed George Walker’s concerns for New Era. “Phyllis kept us posted,” said Beth McDonald, who also was a member of that “Experiencing God” group. “We grew into a love relationship with that church, and we didn’t know them.”

Their help began small. First, the Baptist church collected Bibles. Then they helped with Vacation Bible School. Then they talked of raising money to help New Era build a new sanctuary. That’s where Terral Whetstone and his idea for a fire came in.

Because the relationship between the churches evolved naturally, many First Baptist members believed God had orchestrated it, was calling them to help New Era. “When we saw how God was putting this together,” said the Rev. Hill, “it seemed like God had all kinds of flashing signs up saying, `This is the way.”’

X X X

Three black preachers, the Revs. Robert T. Green, Denzel Steward and Jones, stand out front of New Era, smoking cigarettes, and answering questions about the burning of churches, black and white.

They don’t believe it’s necessarily white folks that are burning the black churches, they said. “Burning of God’s house has little to do with prejudice,” Steward said. “When you consider the growth of Satanism, it’s growing like wildfire right out of the house of Satan in San Francisco. Those people who are burning churches hate God.”

Said Green: “At the root of all that trouble, there’s Satan. If they burn down our church, he (God) must have a better building for us. Burn one down, we’ll build a bigger one. No matter what their intention, all they’re doing is making us stronger.”

Even before Terral Whetstone planned to burn down New Era, the church had plans for a bigger, better church. The blueprint was tacked to a wall in the front of the New Era sanctuary.

In fact, they know all about Terral Whetstone. Whetstone, actually, is there to help. His plan to burn their church had their blessing, and they planned a special, joint service to watch.

From the air, the new church will look like a cross. It will have classrooms, a kitchen and a baptistry. It will be a metal building, and once the shell is up, they will string temporary lights and begin to worship there while they raise the money to finish the inside.

It is a gift from First Baptist Church of Blanchard, La., to New Era Baptist Church, from white folks to black, but, most important, said the givers, from Christians to Christians.

In the past year, the members of First Baptist have raised $40,000 toward the $75,000 price of putting up the new sanctuary. One church member drew up the blueprint for free, and Terral Whetstone, for lack of a better title, is construction coordinator.

Long before church fires were in the news, Whetstone decided that the New Era building couldn’t be salvaged, and the best, cheapest way to be rid of it was to burn it, which was how his electric power company once unburdened itself of an old building. The local fire department in East Texas turned it into a practice run.

“We’re going to need to demolish the building,” Whetstone said. “There’s nothing in it except for pews, a few books, a piano. The building itself is of no value. And demolition can get expensive.

“This is like an old flag when it’s no longer of use. It’s a respectful way to dispose of it. It goes quickly at no cost.”

But there was to be no church burning.

No one has been able to stop the rash of illegal burnings, but the government found a way to stop a planned, legal one. The church, which had lined up the fire department to tend the fire, was told it needed a permit.

Alerted by local television news reports, the state’s Department of Environmental Quality arrived on the scene about 11 a.m. Monday (July 8), the day of the scheduled burning.

The congregations learned that they would have to remove the shingles and tarpaper, and that they could burn only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Two women and a few men climbed up top and pulled shingles in the heat of the day, but the Gilliam volunteer fire department couldn’t be gathered before 5 p.m.

Monday night, members of the two churches said a short prayer together. And Tuesday (July 9) morning, Whetstone bulldozed the church.

The government wasn’t finished. The state agency wouldn’t allow them to burn the church as a pile of rubble. So they will have to do what they were trying to avoid: Pay someone to haul away the rubble.

In the meantime, if the rain leaves them alone, the two churches hope to build the frame for the foundation this weekend, pour the concrete next week and raise the metal shell of New Era’s new era.

“The devil or somebody usually throws out some road blocks,” Whetstone said Tuesday after a day on the bulldozer. “You got to go around them and keep going.”

MJP END GRELEN